In the Life: Ep. 901, "8th Season Premiere"

on this edition of In The Life celebrating 25 years of the lesbian herar story archives out on frat row I thought it was nice and San Francisco mayor Willie Brown I believe gays and lesbians are asking to be treated as blacks have asked to be treated all this and more on the season premiere of in the Life America gay and lesbian television news [Music] magazine in the life is funded in part by the H vaning in Foundation additional support provided by Michael a leapin Jeffrey B sorif the Gil Foundation The Lily aen Claus Foundation the Michael Palm found Foundation the arch and Bruce Brown Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice and the annual support of in the Life members like [Music] you [Music] welcome to the season premiere of in the Life hi I'm Katherine Linton as this episode airs the countdown to the New Millennium is well underway for many people anticipation for Y2K brings about a whole range of emotions from Nostalgia for what was to anticipation for what is Yet to Come the gay men and lesbians you'll meet on tonight's program represent both the past and the present but all have a hand in Paving the way towards the future for example we're bringing you this broadcast from the lesbian her story archives in New York later in the show we'll profile this institution which for 25 years has been making sure that the past is not to be lost to the Future and in our focus on the younger generation correspondent Tanya Barfield profile a Chicago theater company that is winning a claim for its production about the experiences of young gay men and lesbians I'm a teenager I want to go on dates I think boys are cute I want to date cute boys creating plays based on the actor's personal experience has a history in theater with the Chorus Line being one famous example plus correspondent Paul Mueller talks to some college students about going Greek either by forming gay fraternities or by coming out in straight ones and in the process redefining that traditionally heterosexual Bastion of male bonding but first an update on a story that we first brought to you in April about a court case which pitted the nation's Airlines against the city of San Francisco the airlines were opposed to a 1997 law which required that all companies doing business with the city provide samex domestic partnership benefits to their employees last May a federal court judge upheld the ordinance and since then several Airlines have begun to change their policies correspondent Jonathan capart talks to some advocates for change including a well-known and outspoken politician they did exactly what should have been done at the original passage and that is embrace the idea of equal justice equal benefits to all of its employees whether um persons of the same sex or persons of opposite sex United along with the 26 member air transportation Association argued that a city or a municipality could not mandate internal policy for a company doing business Nationwide and even with its Landmark decision to offer domestic partner benefits United continues to fight its case in appeal I think that was a very interesting move on their part and and really quite smart Ian we had said from the beginning that United could implement the benefits if it wanted to and still continue with the lawsuit because the premise of the lawsuit is that the airlines are federally regulated as an industry the company must have decided that there was a line Beyond which they were going to take this action and I think was a very classy thing for the corporation to do because they also extended benefits globally which is an unusual move for a company of that size I think it's important to recognize that this little city and county has literally changed the world because not only did United Airlines and subsequently other airlines agree to providing these equal benefits for the San Francisco employees and their domestic Partners but they're doing this worldwide the San Francisco legislation May well be having a substantial impact on domestic partner benefits across the country when this decade began about a dozen companies were offering domestic partner benefits a few years ago the number had grown to as many as 500 today it's close to 3,000 but the road to United's decision was a contentious three-year process supervisors lesie Katz and Tom Amano and Susan Leal were the lead sponsors in this legislation which mandates that businesses the contract with the city and county of San Francisco must provide to its employees and their domestic Partners the same equal benefits that employers provide to employees and their spouses I signed it into law and then of course lawsuits ensued because many of the persons affected by did not wish to have uh their businesses directed by any ordinance passed by the people of the city and around that time a group of local activists the same individuals who actually brought this legislation to our Board of Supervisors in 1996 they formed equal benefits Advocates and this was a Grassroots organization which then proposed that we have a boycott of United Airlines we did that with the assistance of the Human Rights Campaign we endorsed that that boycott um and I think that that also added to the um the pressure the cumulative pressure on United to to do the right thing the Human Rights Campaign also assisted United with pride the airlines gay employee group we wrote a domestic partner policy a senstive of the company uh talked talked to them about how we can implement the benefits so forth and so on United with pride also became an important resource for the city they came to us and served us with subpoenas to give depositions as a explanation of how we feel we are being discriminated against as gay and lesbian employees and I gave the story about when uh I received a call a year ago last April on a Sunday morning at 3:00 a.m. uh from my sister-in-law uh and she told me that my parents were in an automobile accident my father was killed and my mother was in ensive care well I was pretty shooken up and and I knew I wanted to go and be by my mother's side right away so the company has a special benefit called emergency travel I asked to be put on the next available flight and I said I'd also like a ticket to my domestic partner and they said no I'm sorry we don't have that benefit and I told that story in the deposition to this day I really I really feel that perhaps my father's senseless death helped people see the pain and suffering that discrimination brings it became very clear as the court consistently and continuously made its rulings that United was slowly but surely being left without any rational reason for failing to implement domestic Partners benefit the fact is also that the San Francisco law has pushed some companies to be first in their industry and then we've seen that cascading effect companies lack IBM Bank of America xrock organizations that prior to the ordinance actually volunteered to step forward and in many cases help us shape the ordinance to make it work it says to them thank you very much to those who had not come to the table so to speak speak it says if you want to do business in San Francisco with San franciscans uh you'd better get with it as it relates to equality of law we're in a very tight job market unemployment is at about 4% companies are finding that they need to offer better benefits packages to attract and retain really good employees and this is one way it's very low cost and it says to workers we truly value diversity in all its manifestations we can continue continue on this track and push for equality in the workplace at the Grassroots level where individual people have just a a huge say a great deal of power and and they can they can win it's it's kind of like a like a a stone wall day for us out here in the United Airlines this is our Stonewall so uh um you know it's maybe 10 years from now we're going to look back and say wow those are the days where we're in the when we were in the trenches San Francisco's demonstration of inclusion is where the system is headed and where it must go and where it must in the early part of the Millennium where it must reach the Village Voice recently called me the lethal tonged Marvy Margaret but that's not the only reason I think they're hip in 1982 The Voice became the first employer in the United States to offer offer domestic partner benefits to its lesbian and gay employees today there's a rapidly growing Legion of companies who feel that offering these benefits is good for business and the right thing to do a host of websites offer information about achieving domestic partner benefits in the workplace to find the links visit the inthelife website at www.in [Music] back in the 1970s lesbians became a visible political presence in American Life despite this or some might argue because of this lesbian history was often distorted or altogether undocumented that's why a group of lesbians decided that they themselves should present and preserve their own stories we began talking about how easily our history had gotten lost that we didn't want our story to be told by quote a patriarchal history keeper I didn't want our story to be told by those who called us freaks to begin with and that if we didn't do it nobody was going to do it for us Joan Nestle and Deb Adel are two of the founders of the lesbian her story archives in New York which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year for all of those years they've been collecting the writings photographs Publications t-shirts buttons in fact all of the materials that tell the many histories of lesbian lives and for almost 20 of those years the entire collection was housed in Joan Nestle's own apartment this wasn't going to be a one night stand it was going to be a long-term relationship we had a commitment to the archives that one it had to be a lifelong commitment because just think if an archives doesn't Outlast at least one generation it's not on archives so it started in a back room and my mother was living here at the time and it was this we'd have these meetings around the table my mother would come out without her teeth in and she'd say very good girls very [Music] good if it's done by a lesbian we collect it if it's thought about by a lesbian we collected if it's written by a lesbian if it's touched by lesbian we we collect it we have papers and Diaries and journals we have photographs traditional archives have been about famous people and from the beginning that was not our view that this was an archives that belonged to the people who lived its history in the life of Mabel Hampton which is for me at the spiritual heart part of the archives captures that because in traditional history Mabel Hampton story would not be told she was a domestic worker for most for life she was an Entertainer she was a participant in the hlem Renaissance and I know Miss Hampton and this is harder for me to talk about at one point Miss Hampton worked for my mother and that's how I met her and she was the first lesbian woman I ever knew and the courageous woman had as you you would ask Mabel later in life when she was here with the archives and she was living here women would make pilgrimages to see her on Thursday night and they'd sit at her feet and she was she she loved the ladies she loved the girls as she called them and they'd say well maybe when were you when did you come out and she'd say what do you mean when did I come out I was never in a few years ago my lover then found a T-shirt and the T-shirt was about famous black women in history and it listed all the famous women so Jour of truth and the last name on that list was mael Hampton you know so in her 80s she became this really out gay activist in 1991 after years of planning and fundraising the lesbian her story archives bought this building in Brooklyn New York we did a lot as a group a lot of fundraising um in order to get this building we had people giving us small donations and we were able to put down half of the building really um half of the cost of the building at the time of purchase from donations 99% of which were 2555 eventually those small donations enabled the archives to pay off the entire mortgage that was a very exciting moment for us to really realize that we could claim the mortgage tear up the mortgage and not be beholden to any Bank um or any outside group that this was our building the lesbian community's building here we are on the first floor in the Parlor and the books and materials that we have in this room really represent um the most traditional sort of Library we have a vast collection of subject files ranging everything from news print to um pamphlets to Flyers about lesbian activities and events and then over here we we have a very special collection this we call the Red Dot collection it was the library of the New York City chapter of the daughters of bitas and it really represents what lesbians were reading in the 1960s 1950s and 60s and it's a wonderful collection that's the lesbian survival collection they're a wonderful collection of paperbacks from the 50s and [Music] 60s and I had read them myself when I came out in the ' 50s that was all there was and they were R all over this country in fact they were bestsellers these were the secreted books and some of them were very powerful they were handbooks and how to survive as a lesbian woman women who wrote Under assumed names and women who wrote using their own names they had absolutely no control of the text the title or the content if there was a sex scene between two women a woman had to lose her child her job or die so we read Around the markings of hatred and control and found remarkable things here we are in the dining room we use it for exhibits we have tapes photography flat art posters graphics and an extensive videotape collection the archives is run by a Coordinating Committee we meet every three weeks and we all sign up on the calendar for the days we're actually going to staff and be here we don't have any paid staff we don't have any plans at this point to have paid staff we are part of the community and it's our community who will um keep us going and it's absolutely paid [Music] off we had decided early on that the lesbian Herer archives would not be what we call a role model collection meaning that we wanted the story stories of all lesbian women and if they were sex workers we wanted that story and if they were SNM women we wanted that story all of this got even more complex when just a few years ago maybe two or three years ago we got the collection of a woman a lesbian woman who had been an FBI informant in the 50s informing on labor movement groups a woman who had spent much of her later life in provinc toown ran one of the most famous lesbian tourist spots in provinc toown and was very loved by that community and her past very little known and I remember one woman saying to me very fervent woman saying well well if there was a lesbian Nazi group you wouldn't want their papers and I as a Jew saying we certainly would one we have we need to understand you know it's it's an uncomfortable collection but it's important now with his diverse collection and own Rich history in the life congratulates the lesbian her story archives on its 25th anniversary the fact we're still here after 25 years is just [Music] amazing I to kiss you kiss really really kiss you this is the center of the universe the center of the universe where am I who Am I who am I where am I what's happening in February 1999 a casting call went out to teens in the Chicago area if you were lesbian gay bisexual transgendered questioning or an ally and you had an interest in acting the folks at about face theater we looking for you since its founding in 1995 about face has quickly emerged as an award-winning company this year the artistic directors teamed up with Horizons a lesbian and gay Youth Services Agency for a special theater project called first breath I saw in a newspaper ad and I didn't read the newspaper ad carefully and I thought it was just a new play about gay youth and I came thinking I was going to be auditioning for a show and then they told me what it was really like and I was like oh well that sounds even more interesting we've been doing educational work at about faith since our founding um in 1995 we've been going to high schools and doing Outreach work from the feedback we got from students and teachers it seemed to be a very effective uh program the kids were really hungry to talk about gay lesbian issues I didn't even know what gay was till high school till now I just thought gay was a boy who liked to play with dolls and hung out with girls a lot in 1997 about face became Chicago's only resident gay and lesbian theater making its home at the historic Jane Adam Center Hall house with an artistic staff of seven about face is boldly Paving the way for new voices in theater I'm a teenager I want to go on dates I think boys are cute I want to date cute boys creating plays based on the actor's personal experience has a history in theater with the Chorus Line being one famous example this Workshop approach was used by about face When developing the show with its 17 young thesbian the show grew out of 6 months of workshops with the kids where they'd come in once a week on Saturdays from 2 to 5 we did a lot of exploring of stereotypes and gender issues and just all sorts of stuff in the workshops well you don't look sick you don't have AIDS you're not gay the first week was risk taking and and it was like fear and love and and share the stories in small groups and then turn them into performances that they' performed back to the whole group when I came out to my parents something died everything changed dreams were killed I disappointed them and we would be you know running around the workshops frantically scribbling trying you know trying to make sure we got down what they had said I knew that c wasn't wrong we really focused on letting the kids build a community and create a safe place for themselves where they could share these stories and and get personal about you know their lives with each other I really didn't want want to be gay I felt guilty because I knew I had one of the worst kinds of homophobia the kind inside of me we made it a point that we weren't just discussing sexuality but we were discussing everyday life within the realm of how sexuality sometimes affected it and sometimes didn't and then the big day came congratulations to3 fg11 you have now passed the test you are now officially negative issues like AIDS and and coming out are very important it was also important to incorporate everyday things that teenagers deal with such as like you know finding a date to the prom and and you know having a crush on someone and everything that we all go through as gay teenagers or straight teenagers you know it is so crazy this whole prom date big major event in your idol life most of my girlfriends going with their boyfriends in these big poofy fairy tale land dresses and it's coming up really yeah why don't you take me yeah whatever everything we did was a part of everyone else we'd all experienced it either ourselves or through each other Mar baby please think twice before you take that pill a surprising thing for me was the level of conversation that we were able to have about all of these issues that we certainly weren't introducing things to them we would just lay it on the table and the response that we would get to questions was overwhelming the young cast credits past generations of gays and lesbians for the opportunity they have today with about face this show to me is like a thank you I mean like to the audience because like you know when I'd always say when like I'd hear you know a lot of adults saying oh I was not able to do that at your age and I'm so glad that you can do that at your age and I always tell them well I mean we can do it because of you because when you guys eventually came out you guys set up these programs for us to go to and this is us now thanks to you guys over and over they have no right until finally I realized I have rights it's great to get up there and tell your story to people and have them want to listen for the teens in first breath being part of this production has been a rewarding and lifechanging experience I don't judge anything anymore I just observe it and I don't judge it anymore because there's really no reason to that's what the show's taught me and I hope that people learn that from the show I think it also has given all of us a lot more courage to face the world around us and to face who we are I have this feeling I'm going to kiss you kiss you I want to touch you really kiss you right now my grandparents came to the show and I wasn't out to them so this was my whole coming out experience my coming out story was like the second group day we had when I had to come out to everyone as being straight and everyone's like you know I was like okay I'm sorry there's a lot in the show about love what love is or isn't although there may be many different sexualities there is only one love and they were all sweet yes my daughter's in the show and um I'm very proud of her it's so powerful inspirational it's really impressive kids need to see these type of things to understand what goes on in their life it had been an idea since we formed the company but but we sort of came together and went what is it that we want to do with the theater what's the heart of it and we're like it's that youth project that's what we've got to do and both of us just started talking about how that would have changed our lives how much more open we could have been and further along you know if if if you can come to terms with these things and your youth rather than early adulthood you know what ahead start that is and we both just got a little te eyed you know thinking that that it might actually happen it's the most thrilling thing to watch these kids go through that and to feel like we gave them them that opportunity about face plans a tour over the production to Chicago area high schools next up for the young company the world premiere of dancer from the dance an adaptation of an Andrew hollerin novel this is Tanya Barfield for in the life let's come out and dispel the rumors and lies that are being spread about us let's come out and set everybody straight so to speak hi I'm Martina Na toova and you are watching in the life Mr Gus vanan X last July Katie Lang presented openly gay director Gus VanZant with a special award honoring his cinematic contributions to queer culture at outfest 99 the Los Angeles lesbian gay film festival vanzan perhaps best known for directing Goodwill Hunting and the remake of psycho came to the attention of gay audiences with my own private Idaho and malano in 1987 as was mentioned before um my film malano opened the LA lesbian and gay film festival and as a result some of the critics gave me the La film critics award for the best independent experiment Al film and if you just left off the experimental part it was the best independent film of that year and in August the gay and lesbian Medical Association held its 17th annual Symposium in San Diego since 1981 glma has worked to fight anti-gay bias within the medical profession and to promote Quality Health Care for the gay community former US Surgeon General Joselyn Elders delivered the opening address of course we have to realize that the primary people who have HIV disease now are poor blocked and uneducated in Chicago Tipper Gore and Kristen Johnson appeared as guest speakers at the 10th Annual Human Rights Campaign Illinois dinner dance this year the annual benefit raised $150,000 for HRC the nation's largest Gan lesbian political organization Mrs Gore spoke about the challenges facing gas and lesbians stressing the importance of inclusivity equal rights and of course the upcoming elections all people regardless of sexual orientation should be able to be part of a loving relationship and raise a family without fear of recrimination or discrimination still to come on in the Life teen flicks with a Twist as high school life becomes the setting for lesbian and gay films and from the in Theif archives a day in the life of Peter worth but first Paul Mueller with a story which we call out on frat Row the college Institution for many the first step after leaving home but also a place to develop a sexual identity Brotherhood friendship and a chance to belong are just some of the promises offered young men by college fraternities but for gay men coming out life inside that traditionally homophobic Institution is beginning to change I didn't plan to join a fraternity but once I met the guys in in my fraternity I was just like well this sounds this is like this is what's right for me Justin fredman heritz isn't your traditional frat boy sure he likes to party and hang out with the guys but he's gay and not afraid of sharing that with his brothers I didn't exactly hide it whereas I didn't exactly tell everybody about it like guys just started asking me about it like nobody had any problem with it every National fraternity has had gay brothers um within their ranks and I think um that's very hard for a lot of straight men who may be homophobic to understand Shane winm has had firsthand experience not only as a gay brother himself but as the author of out on frat row a Chronicle of what it's like to be gay and Greek part of that life he says is the cycle of invisibility gay brothers are there he says many of them too afraid to come out and this fear he concludes creates a missed opportunity homophobia creates that fear and ignorance that keeps a straight brother from understanding his own identity and being comfortable with being straight and his sexuality because he's constantly afraid of the unknown afraid of the unknown as seen in the recently released film Defying Gravity a movie about how one fraternity brother is able to live undetected in two Divergent worlds forets Griffith forets I don't know about you but I like my meat well Dy Mr social chair uh don't you mean well hungry candy what it is hey check this out car but fortunately for Justin Freedman heritz his sexuality is out in the open ever since he put a Pride sticker in his room in January like the guys in my house are just really really progress really way ahead of their time the probability for me to to get into a house that that accepts me so readily was was not very was not very large at all the first time you ever said anything I was sitting in a room one Monday night just hanging out and he just happened to mention something about some guy he was seeing you know it wasn't a big deal it was something we all kind of knew it just didn't really matter you know didn't make a difference he was still Justin but Justin is not only a brother and the rush chair the person ultimately responsible for the growth of the chapter he's also an educator like I've just kind of kind of accepted a role as kind of like the adviser on the subject you know what I mean and although Justin is not the first gay member of his fraternity he is the first to be out and his brothers say this does nothing but help the Brotherhood what Justin and what the other gay members of our house bring is is some something that other houses don't have you know diversity builds you know it builds strength and you have different perspectives on things and I think that having gay brothers can only only help us I'd hope we'd all be secure enough in our masculinity at this point to deal with it a straight brother like Rick Fetti whose experiences with gay friends has opened his mind and taken away that fear you could benefit from from any brother based upon whether they're heterosexual or homosexual as long as I have something to contribute I'm not going to drop a friend just because I'm afraid that I may lose two or three others CU they're uncomfortable that I'm I'm friends with son's guy but on the other hand wind Meer admits most fraternities fear what could happen what's the big deal it's not like he lives at the house anymore moved out adios goodbye well that's one angle we can totally distance ourselves wait a minute guys we can't just ignore this he's a Bentley how do you know J did you there have been a number of fraternities on campuses um from local chapters that um if they were known to have a gay member um it would be very easy for the rest of the fraternity chapters to Brand them as a gay fraternity and it hurts their Rush efforts it hurts alumni efforts and before you know it they're gone uh from that campus if there are people who are going to Brand us a gay fraternity and not want to hang out with us or not want to join because of that then I don't necessarily want to hang out with them you know you're going to hear the comments made you know that you tease one one brother who teases another just to to Simply make the comment and deep down aside I guess they're they're not really comfortable with themselves but there is an alternative for gay students who want to be a part of the Greek system Delta lamb defi the nation's only gay fraternity on many campuses if you want to be Greek and out joining a gay fraternity may be your best bet with over 19 chapters and 1200 members Delta Lambda fi allows gay bisexual and Progressive men to experience Brotherhood in a safe and supportive environment I had tried to join a traditional fraternity um I was told by one that being openly gay was just not going to fly at all because they do not want me to desanctify their letters they were afraid that I would be like a threat to their unified image so rather than join a traditional heterosexual fraternity and be stuck in the closet David decided not to live a lie he'd heard about Delta lambi and since there wasn't a chapter at Western Michigan University he started one they don't have to fear being who they want to be or who they are when you're with us gay and bisexual and Progressive heterosexual men have issues that you know um a homophobic heterosexual in a traditional fraternity is not going to be able to deal with we need to have an alternative to the traditional straight type of fraternity win Meer says the door is wide open for discrimination against Gab brothers in the traditional fraternities there are only a handful of national fraternities that have sexual orientation in included um in their non-discrimination statements and he says there are fewer which provide information on what to do if a brother is gay there's a lot of uh lack of leadership from our national fraternities um when it comes to providing resources and materials to kind of break down the the closet door of college Greeks as open as a fraternity may say they are um about gays or bisexual men um there's always going to be several members that are going to harass the person or give them Flack if someone was rushing our fraternity and going through the pledge process and later that that wind up coming out um they probably wouldn't be accepted anymore why not it's just you just follow the Norms that's just the whole image of a fraternity an image that once a gay man enters the picture continues to Foster some misconceptions a gay man does not join a fraternity to get a date he doesn't join a fraternity to redecor the house you know he doesn't join a fraternity to play Touch football he joins for the same reasons as does any other fraternity man and that's for the social um aspects as for the Brotherhood and the sense of belonging I think most guys are pretty comfortable around me because they already know that I'm not just going to like I'm not going to try to like Rob them of their masculinity in the middle of the night or anything like that you know like it it's all about it's all about people that you trust and people the reason that people are scared about homosexuals or gay men or whatever it's because they don't they don't know what they're all about the whole ideal Brotherhood can overcome homophobia that if you have a strong Brotherhood in a chapter then you can overcome someone coming out or you can Rush someone who's openly gay and is two young men one gay one straight prepare to leave college with a strong sense of what Brotherhood is really all about if I can influence one or two individuals and change their outlook on someone that may be homosexual then that's the best I can do I've always just been welcomed and accepted and I just want it to be like that for everybody if I can help Foster a legacy of understanding this and open-mindedness here and my in my fraternity I think I've left here done a very good thing another sign that things are changing on American campuses sigy Epsilon one of the nation's largest fraternities just added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination clause and its National bylaws fostering a sense of community and bringing people together whether in a theater on a campus or or even on the web is an empowering experience and important for those who might at times feel isolated the Lambda 10 project housed at Indiana University is a national Clearing House for educational resources and materials relating to the experiences of gay lesbian and bisexual students in fraternities and sororities for an online link to the Lambda 10 project and other resources visit us at this is Michael Mayor for in the [Music] life in the 1980s a number of filmmakers made their Mark with movies about the loneliness and heartache of being a teenage Outsider the standard story line goes something like this dorky Teen Falls for popular ath lead or cheerleader goes through some changes and ultimately finds love and self-awareness but with young people coming out at earlier ages and the general success of gay themed films a new generation of directors are putting their own spin on this popular teen flick genre I was really inspired by like a lot of the uh films that I grew up with as a kid uh you know like the John Hughes Trilogy um pretty and pink and 16 Candles in The Breakfast Club I think it's important for gay kids to see their lives reflected on screen you have a girlfriend yeah his name's Danny screenwriter Todd Stevens used his own coming out experience in the80s as the basis for the film edge of 17 which was shot on location in his hometown of sanduski Ohio was just so personal that I just kind of wanted to make it like as real as is we could and you know it going back to sanduski definitely helped with that I think did you put on my clone no um I I mean I just like I opened it up I wanted to see what it smelled like you did unbelievably I think edge of 17 is the first one of the first movies to address coming out in Suburban America I just don't want people getting the wrong idea what idea people think you're gay is that what you want to know I was very impressed that this character um really hit it a head on he uh dove into it and came out of it on the other side you know certainly not unscathed but very much for the you know better off I guess I thought if I came out everything would get [Laughter] easier the main sort of theme of the film is acceptance you know accepting yourself uh and sort of being accepted for who you are so I guess the the main thing that i' want people to walk away with is be true to s what's wrong with me the British film get real released earlier this year depicts similar issues of isolation and acceptance in a small town outside of London I think it's probably easier to be gay today than it ever has been if you live in a big city I think that probably applies for the states as well as a UK I my personal take on it is that it's no easier than it ever was to come out yeah but when Kev called you queer the other day you denied it if you really do like being I mean how can you really like yourself If you deny what you are what let's tell everyone then no don't you dare I mean there was one particular boy in the town in basing Stoke in the town where we filmed it who we were sitting around talking about the plot of the film and so on and he said that sounds like me uh I'm 16 and I'm gay and my best friend is the girl who lives next door John Dixon is my lover if he was my girlfriend he could be here with me he told us that there was absolutely nowhere for him to go for advice for I mean there was no telephone number on a notice board that he could call up and talk to someone there are certainly no gay clubs or bars or [Music] anything no end my love and part of what we're trying to say is that um it's because of that kind of climate that kids have to do things like hang out in men's room and meet people in the woods which is potentially putting them in danger stepen what were you doing in those woods it's just a laugh I'm sorry well you're sorry you're sorry you heard what he said how can you have been such a stupid sod gram well use your imagination he could have been molested by some dirty old queer God the thought of it makes me sick what on God's Earth possessed you but where else were we supposed to go we wanted to show by the end of the film that it was intolerable for him not to come out and to make it you know a mainstream audience understand that mainstream audiences in Sweden made show me love one of the top grossing movies of the year the film tells the story of Agnes a young Outcast Who falls for Ellen a popular but troubled girl at her school director Lucas Moody wanted to make a film that would be authentic to the experiences of teenagers told from their point of view hello while the previous three Works strive to present a realistic picture of what it's like to grow up gay this next film But I'm a Cheerleader uses broad satire to tackle issues such as outing gender stereotypes and even the ex gay movement you're turning into a pretty young lady now hold still honey we think you're a lesbian this is uh the story of Megan who is a cheerleader and who's gay and doesn't know it and so her family and friends out her and her parents send her off to make you straight Camp which doesn't work I decided to make the lead character a cheerleader because when you think about the antithesis of what you would consider to be a lesbian a cheerleader is certainly one of those stereotypes that you don't think of as being a lesbian and I really wanted the film to be about um gender constructs and stereotypes I myself was once a gay now I'm an ex gay Megan I work for a place called true directions who help people like yourself learn to understand the reasons behind homosexual tendencies and and how to heal them there are a lot of ads have been running in the San Francisco Examiner and across the country about the xgame ministry they've had kind of a Resurgence lately Exodus and all these other groups put out these ridiculous vide tapes about the gay agenda and things like that and so I always wanted to do something to kind of counter [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that well I definitely want people to have a time and laugh that's really important to me um that they think it's funny I also want them to come away realizing how absurd these X camps are but I'd like it to be one of those movies that you leave and instead of talking about whether you like the production design or not you're talking about the issues and you get involved in a conversation today's teenagers are tomorrow's parents so I hope not just my film but films like this can will make them think sort of 15 years down on the line if if they have a gay kid then they might understand a bit more than certainly my parents did good we look so good we look so good together and we are we are we are under and we don't we don't care we [Music] don't [Music] we'd like to end this episode with a segment from the in the Life archives that originally aired in 1996 it's the story of 81-year-old Peter worth a lesbian whose own life spanned much of the 20th century and who saw and survived her share of politics and Prejudice for half a century Peter lived in Cherry Grove home to a predominantly gay community on Fire Island New York sadly Peter passed away shortly after we broadcast our story but her courage and her Charisma will never be forgotten by all of those including myself who had the honor to meet her in her memory we revisit a day in the life of Peter worth I've been visited Peter on Fire Island and asked her about her life and her very early coming out I was about 14 and uh I read a book that I didn't understand and I asked a friend what this was all about and she told me there are women who love women instead of men and uh we figured out that must be the case with me how did you know at at 14 like what made you feel different well I I I always wanted to dress a little differently you know I like ties and stuff like that and uh but otherwise I well I always had crushes on women but that was I think that lots of girls have that no teachers and all that movie stars and stuff like that yeah were there images of gay and lesbians at that time uh yes well I discovered uh a a bar much later two three years later and in the in the window they had pictures of women who looked like men you know very short hair and monocle something like that so I thought this and I went out after Hitler took power in Germany there were no bars right no uh at first there were none and then uh then they opened up one thing and they had to sign up it was uh just for women and I mean I'm stupid enough to do it because I wanted to go and this was a government-owned gay bar well I mean it was under Hitler everything belonged to Hitler so and what happed wasn't there there was a raid or something uh yes I went with this girl and about 5 minutes later were about six or eight policemen but not in uniform men you know and they said pay up for your drinks and get out and there was a big big van and it took us to the main police station in Berlin and they had me registered there as as being a registered resident so didn't ask me anything they just let me go they let you go without yeah but they now had your name as somebody who went to a gay bar oh yeah oh yeah yeah were you scared yes to escape Hitler's Germany Peter traveled to Paris to meet her mother only to discover that in 1939 all Germans were considered by the French to be potential spies she was then placed in a French prisoner of war camp what was what was your worst memory of that of that time well they didn't really feed us as so to speak you know they gave us what was called pish and once a week we got something put some potato or something like that that was very unpleasant during this experience in prison Peter actually met one other gay woman and immediately following her release met up with her in con after after being in this prisoner of war camp you went to con I met her right away right away how how long were you with her in uh in KH not too long because she had a friend there I mean you know it wasn't all wasn't supposed to be not long after Peter left on one of the few remaining boats carrying refugees Bound for the United States here she discovered gay New York and and gay hideaways well after first going to the wrong Beach I said Betty I didn't see anything there was a certain bar but and she said well you went to Ocean Beach and I said yes you said that's where I should go and she said well I went to Cherry Grove and I said let me have that address and that's that was it I've been here every summer every and how many Summers is that uh the first time I was here was 46 so you've been here 50 years yes because it was 46 and more happy anniversary thank you I'm always happy when I get out here this is it this I I don't want to be anywhere else why I like to be surrounded by my own kind you know what what keeps what keeps you going I lived like everybody else right I knew quite a few lesbians and quite a few [Music] homosexuals and didn't bother with anybody else nor did they bother with me uh I lived what I thought was a normal life from all of us in the life thank you for watching and we'll see you next [Music] [Music] time I go back to zero hry I see what you think you when you pass me in [Music] [Applause] [Music] the so good we look so good we look so good together and we are under the ground we are under the ground we are and what in the life is funded in part by the AG vaning in Foundation additional support provided by Michael a Le Jeffrey B sorif the Gil Foundation The Lily aen Claus Foundation the Michael Palm Foundation the arch and Bruce Brown Foundation the Mitchell Gold company in the hopes of eliminating all types of fear and Prejudice and the annual support of in Theif 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